MacTech Blog

By 2027, “tens of billions” of smart objects will be Internet-enabled with IP addresses, according to a new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

Expenditures on buying and installing actual Internet of Things (IoT_ networks is much more modest, contrary to heroic forecasts made by most analysts and manufacturers in the past, adds the research group. Node forecasts have now been reduced in the light of what has happened, though systems figures have been increased.

Research and Markets says it adds up to $20 billion in actual networks, including nodes in 10 years from now and rapid progress after that. See the number and dollar breakdown by application.

Worldwide shipments of devices — PCs, tablets and mobile phones — totaled 2.28 billion units in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).Shipments are on course to reach 2.32 billion units in 2018, an increase of 2.1%.

The research group says two markets will drive overall growth in device shipments in 2018. First is the mobile phone market, led by the high-end smartphone segment. Second is the premium ultramobile market, where thin and light Apple and Microsoft Windows 10 devices are stimulating higher demand.
"Consumers have many technologies to choose from, which poses two main challenges for vendors. The first is to compete for wallet share, given how many devices consumers own. The second is to deliver value and maintain relevance — to offer the right device to the right audience," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "We will see more buyers focusing on value, rather than just...

Allied Market Research (www.alliedmarketresearch.com) has published a report on the global cyber security market for the forecast period of 2016 - 2022. A compound annual growth of 15.5% is registered in the forecast period, notes the research group. The market will accrue a whopping $198 billion by 2022.

Government and agencies have a long way to go before settling at a cyber security technology that can protect them from growing cyber threats, according to Allied Market Research. It would not come as a surprise if the world faces another wave of cyber violence, adds the research group.

This is due to the lack of budget, fewer facilities for R&D, and scarcity of workforce that is keeping us behind. Healthcare centers have sensitive patient information, military and aerospace sectors cannot afford to compromise their data to unknown eyes, and the government holds dear various...

Organizations are embracing self-service analytics and business intelligence (BI) to bring these capabilities to business users of all levels. This trend is so pronounced that Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) predicts that by 2019, the analytics output of business users with self-service capabilities will surpass that of professional data scientists.

"The trend of digitalization is driving demand for analytics across all areas of modern business and government," said Carlie J. Idoine, research director at Gartner. "Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and SaaS (cloud) analytics and BI platforms are making it easier and more cost-effective than ever before for nonspecialists to perform effective analysis and better inform their decision making.”

Gartner's recent survey of more than 3,000 CIOs shows that CIOs ranked analytics and BI as the top differentiating technology for their...

In its current form, the Internet of Things (IoT) represents a considerable threat to consumers due to inadequate regulations regarding security and privacy, say experts interviewed by the Cyber Security Research Institute for a new report sponsored by F-Secure (www.f-secure.com). Swift action is recommended to” avoid a predictable descent into a dystopian future,” according to the study.

With the number of connected devices now likely exceeding the human population of Earth, the IoT is already nearly inescapable. Millions of connected devices have already been compromised to be used a part of the Mirai botnet. Many consumers aren’t aware of inherent risks of their connected devices and that manufacturers often rush products to market without considering basic security requirements and settings.

“This situation could create an even more frightening scenario than the UK tabloid newspapers' ‘phone hacking’...

Robotic technology is quietly transforming the world of agriculture and will grow to become a $45 billon industry by 2028, according to the IDTechEx (www.IDTechEx.com) research group.

Tractor guidance and autosteer are well-established technologies. In the short to medium terms, both will continue their growth thanks to improvements and cost reductions in RTK GPS technology. IDTechEx estimates that around 700,000 tractors equipped with autosteer or tractor guidance will be sold in 2028.

Unmanned autonomous tractors have also been technologically demonstrated with large-scale market introduction largely delayed — not by technical issues but by regulation, high sensor costs and the lack of farmers' trust. This will start to slowly change from 2024 onwards, though the sales will only slowly grow. IDTechEx estimates that around 40,000 unmanned fully-autonomous (level 5) tractors will be sold in 2038. The take...

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research (www.alliedmarketresearch.com), the global patient centric healthcare app market was valued at $10,235.0 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $113,728.0 million by 2023, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.9% from 2017 to 2023.

The phone based app segment accounted for about half of the global market share in 2016. Patient centric is an approach by which a healthcare system can establish a partnership among practitioners, patients, and their families to align decisions about patient's health, needs, and preferences toward medicine and treatment. The patient centric healthcare apps are smartphone, web-based, and wearable applications that aid users by updating them about medication times, dehydration level in the body, calories consumed and heart beats per minute among other body parameters.

Last year was a banner year for cyber crime; more data was stolen in the first six months of 2017 than in the entirety of 2016. Gemalto’s Breach Level Index found that over 900 data breaches occurred during the first half of 2017, compromising 1.9 billion records.

According to Jing Xie, senior threat intelligence analyst for Venafi (www.venafi.com), a cyber security company, this explosive development in data exfiltration will continue in 2018. In an even more ominous trend, the number of sophisticated state sponsored cyber attacks increased significantly last year.

“In 2017, attackers working for nation-states focused on efficiency and return on investment, and they were very successful,” said Xie. “As a result, we should expect to see escalations and variations of similar attack vectors this year.”
Xie examined the condition of nation-state sponsored cyber warfare and offered these predictions and...

IDC (www.idc.com) forecasts that worldwide spending on robotics and drones solutions will total $103.1 billion in 2018, an increase of 22.1% over 2017. By 2021, IDC expects this spending will more than double to $218.4 billion with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) or 25.4%.

Robotics spending will reach $94 billion in 2018 and will account for more than 90% of all spending throughout the 2017-2021 forecast, according to the research group. Industrial robotic solutions will account for the largest share of robotics spending (more than 70%), followed by service robots and consumer robots.

Discrete and process manufacturing will be the leading industries for robotics spending at more than $60 billion combined in 2018. The resource and healthcare industries will also make significant investments in robotics solutions this year. The retail and wholesale industries will see the fastest robotics spending growth over...

Worldwide spending on public cloud services and infrastructure is forecast to reach $160 billion in 2018, an increase of 23.2% over 2017, according to IDC.

Although annual spending growth is expected to slow somewhat over the 2016-2021 forecast period, the market is forecast to achieve a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9% with public cloud services spending totaling $277 billion in 2021, adds the research group.

The industries that are forecast to spend the most on public cloud services in 2018 are discrete manufacturing ($19.7 billion), professional services ($18.1 billion), and banking ($16.7 billion). The process manufacturing and retail industries are also expected to spend more than $10 billion each on public cloud services in 2018. These five industries will remain at the top in 2021 due to their continued investment in public cloud solutions. The industries that will see the fastest spending growth over the five-year forecast period are...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the total number of cellular M2M connections will reach 1.3 billion by 2022, representing a 220% increase from an estimated 400 million in 2017.

The research group found that emerging cellular networks, including NB-IoT, LTE-M and 5G, will grow together to account for just under 10% of all cellular M2M connections by 2022. Operators are now racing to provide the underlying connectivity for the future high growth of connections, spurred on by the enabled emerging use cases.

Juniper says that smart city development will hugely benefit from LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) access technologies, forecasting that over 25% of cellular smart city devices and applications will operate over these networks by 2022. The low cost per connection of LPWA networks and a battery life of 10 years will become appealing for monitoring city...

The technology divide between older and younger generations may not be as wide as you think. According to a recent survey of 1,000 seniors issued by Senior Helpers (www.seniorhelpers.com), aprovider of in-home senior care, more than 68 percent of people ages 65+ rate their technology skills either average or above average.

The survey, which examined seniors' attitudes on everything from apps and internet usage to social media habits, also found that while most would not consider themselves "tech-savvy" (71 percent), nearly 60 percent of seniors think younger generations underestimate their knowledge and aptitude for technology.

"Technology is constantly evolving, but seniors are much more adept at using tech than many people give them credit for," said Peter Ross, CEO and co-founder, Senior Helpers. "It's become integral to so many other aspects of their lives, they are embracing it.”

According to a new forecast from IDC (www.idc.com), total spending on IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switches) for deployment in cloud environments is expected to total $46.5 billion in 2017 with year-over-year growth of 20.9%.

The research group says that public cloud data centers will account for the majority of this spending, 65.3%, growing at the fastest annual rate of 26.2%. Off-premises private cloud environments will represent 13% of cloud IT infrastructure spending, growing at 12.7% year over year. On-premises private clouds will account for 62.6% of spending on private cloud IT infrastructure and will grow 11.5% year over year in 2017.
Worldwide spending on traditional, non-cloud, IT infrastructure is expected to decline by 2.6% in 2017 but nevertheless will account for the majority, 57.2%, of total end user spending on IT infrastructure products across the three...

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.7 trillion in 2018, an increase of 4.5% from 2017, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

"Global IT spending growth began to turn around in 2017, with continued growth expected over the next few years. However, uncertainty looms as organizations consider the potential impacts of Brexit, currency fluctuations, and a possible global recession," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. "Despite this uncertainty, businesses will continue to invest in IT as they anticipate revenue growth, but their spending patterns will shift. Projects in digital business, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and progression from big data to algorithms to machine learning to artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to be main drivers of growth.”

The fourth quarter of 2017 has seen some exciting changes to a number of important segments in the fintech and payments markets. Updated Q4 research from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) predicts that the value of Bitcoin transactions will peak at $1.17 trillion next year, before collapsing to $57 billion in 2020.

The research group has revised its forecasts for Samsung Pay user adoption and transactions globally. New data from Samsung Pay confirmed South Korea and Russia leading global adoption, followed by the U.S. and India. And with Apple including QR code readers as standard on iPhones, Juniper predicts over one billion mobile devices accessing QR codes by 2022.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $451 billion in 2018, an increase of 7.5% from $419 billion in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). This represents a near doubling of the research group’s previous estimate of 4%growth for 2018.

"Favorable market conditions for memory sectors that gained momentum in the second half of 2016 prevailed through 2017 and look set to continue in 2018, providing a significant boost to semiconductor revenue," said Ben Lee, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Gartner has increased the outlook for 2018 by $23.6 billion compared with the previous forecast, of which the memory market accounts for $19.5 billion. Price increases for both DRAM and NAND flash memory are raising the outlook for the overall semiconductor market.”

However, these price increases will put pressure on margins for system vendors of key semiconductor demand drivers, including...

In his annual letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos referred to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amazon’s own SaaS (Software as a Service) offering.
Kyle Tkachuk, CEO at lead gen software as a service (SaaS) company Clickback, fully agrees with this assessment – referencing a recent demonstration of AI used in B2B marketing applications.

SaaS landing page provider, Unbounce, challenged digital marketers to compete against an AI-based technology called “The Machine” in analyzing landing page copy. The goal was to predict whether the copy would deliver an above- or below-average conversion rate.

“The Machine” won due to conducting its evaluation with a lack of biases. Conversely, the human marketers were opinionated on the effects of design and other variables. The Machine demonstrated 80% accuracy of prediction, compared to 50% by the human contestants.

“It is certain that AI [artificial intelligence] and ML [machine learning] are taking...

As new estimates predict cybercrime costs will exceed $2 trillion by 2019, many consumers are wary of letting companies handle their personal data, according to Spohn Security Solutions offers advice on how to handle and defend against such problems.

Lack of diligence in the business world has dominated headlines, leading to serious mistrust on the part of consumers. Currently, 68% of consumers don’t trust companies to handle their personal data securely and keep it protected from hackers, according to Spohn.

Companies need consumer data for invoicing and other legitimate business purposes. This means that methods must be developed for effectively securing data to prevent personal information from falling into the wrong hands. Cybercriminals quickly devise strategies to overcome older security measures, and it’s a sure bet that they’ll continue to exploit any possible vulnerabilities in new security patches, etc.

According to IDC (www.idc.com), vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products (server, storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud IT, including public and private cloud, grew 25.5% year over year in the third quarter of 2017 (3Q17), reaching $11.3 billion.

Public cloud infrastructure revenue grew 32.3% year over year in 3Q17 to $7.7 billion and now represents 30.2% of total worldwide IT infrastructure spending, up from 26.3% one year ago, notes the research group. Private cloud revenue reached $3.6 billion for an annual increase of 13.1%. Total worldwide cloud IT infrastructure revenue is on pace to nearly double in 2017 when compared to 2013.

Traditional (non-cloud) IT infrastructure revenue grew 8% from a year ago, although it has been generally declining over the past several years; despite the declining trend, at $14.2 billion in 3Q17 traditional IT still represents 55.6% of total worldwide IT...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the global number of registered mobile domestic money transfer users is expected to reach 2.5 billion this year, up from an estimated 1.7 billion in 2016.

This will be driven by social media apps such as WeChat, Facebook and others already witnessing a dramatic rise in service usage, alongside new services including Apple Pay Cash, and Zelle Pay; with leading mobile money services driving growth in emerging markets, adds the research group.

Juniper believes that 2018 will be the year for social payments with key rollouts from Apple, Google and Facebook expected to drive the much delayed social payments market, as a subsector of the wider mobile P2P market.

“It was inevitable that players such as Apple would follow in the footsteps of WeChat Pay and AliPay, and offer a universal set of payment features...

According to IDTechEx (www.IDTechEx.com), electric vehicles for construction, agriculture and mining will be a $87 billion market in 2028. Komatsu, John Deere, Caterpillar, and others manufacture the big vehicles — mainly hybrid — while other manufacturers offer smaller, pure-electric versions.

Pure electric is a legal requirement indoors. Outdoors, fuel saving and better performance attracts. Cranes and man lifters have many applications. Their production volumes are larger than most people realize. So it is with the electric versions set for over 164,000 to be sold in 2028, says IDTechEx.

The research group says this is an industry about to change radically. For example, in mining, over 90% of the world's mines are open cast. They are often in remote places up to 4,000 meters above sea level, where shipping diesel can cost more than buying it. Consequently, there is now a move to have 350...

Technology has made the process of home buying and selling simpler, smarter and faster. As smart home and virtual reality (VR) technology continues to become more mainstream and sought after, consumers are now expecting high-tech experiences before even stepping foot in a prospective listing.

A new survey from Coldwell Banker Real Estate (www.coldwellbanker.com), conducted online by Harris Poll among over 3,000 U.S. adults, suggests VR is poised to become the next big thing in real estate. Americans appear to be ready to embrace VR as a resource to visualize what is normally left to the home buyer's imagination.

In fact, the desire for VR house tours is almost on par with traditional video tours. For those considering a home purchase in the future, 84% of respondents would like to see video footage, while 77% would like the ability to be able to take VR house tours before actually visiting...

New data from IDC (www.idc.com) says global spending on 3D printing (including hardware, materials, software, and services) will be nearly $12 billion in 2018, an increase of 19.9% over 2017. By 2021, the research group expects worldwide spending to be nearly $20.0 billion with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.5%.

Together, 3D printers and materials will account for roughly two thirds of the worldwide spending total throughout the forecast, reaching $6.9 billion and $6.7 billion respectively in 2021. Services spending will trail slightly behind, reaching $5.5 billion in 2021 and led by on-demand parts services and systems integration services. Purchases of 3DP software will grow more slowly than the overall market with a five-year CAGR of 18.6%.

Discrete manufacturing will be the dominant industry for 3D printing, delivering more than half of all worldwide spending throughout the 2017-2021...

Approximately 154 million homes in Europe and North America will be equipped with smart technology by 2021, according to M2M Research Services.

Smart homes and home automation are ambiguous terms used in reference to a wide range of solutions for controlling, monitoring and automating functions in the home. Berg Insight's definition of a smart home system requires that it has a smartphone app or a web portal as a user interface.

Devices that only can be controlled with switches, timers, sensors and remote controls are thus not included in the scope of this study. Smart home systems can be grouped into six primary categories: energy management and climate control systems; security and access control systems; lighting, window and appliance control systems; home appliances; audio-visual and entertainment systems; and healthcare and assisted living systems.

North America recorded strong growth in the smart home market during 2016. The installed base of smart home...

The document management systems market is expected to reach $6.78 billion by 2023 from $3.59 billion in 2017, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.17%, according to Report Linker (www.reportlinker.com).

Growth in this market can largely be attributed to factors such as the increasing need to streamline business operations, benefits of digitalizing content across enterprises, increasing need to adhere to compliance requirements, and increasing adoption of cloud-based services and cloud computing, according to the research group. On the other hand, high implementation costs are expected to restrict adoption, which in turn may limit market growth to a certain extent.

The document management systems market for solutions is expected to hold a larger share, mainly due to the increasing demand for solutions as they help to streamline business processes and operations, according to Report Linker...

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the development of smart grids linked to smart cities will result in citizens saving $14 billion per annum in energy bills by 2022. This is up from the $3.4 billion saving estimated for 2017, resulting from smart meter rollouts, energy-saving policies and sensing technology to improve grid reliability and efficiency.

Juniper found that the high cost of carbon capture and storage technology was making fossil fuel investment uneconomical. With the projected cost of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar falling close to $60 per MWh (Megawatt hour) in 2022, it predicted the inevitable investment would force accelerated deployment of smart grid solutions to reliably scale renewable energy.

What’s more, the research argued that the business case for distributed renewable generation would be strengthened by the...

Emotion artificial intelligence (AI) systems are becoming so sophisticated that Gartner (www.gartner.com) predicts that by 2022, personal devices will know more about an individual's emotional state than his or her own family. AI is generating multiple disruptive forces that are reshaping the way we interact with personal technologies, adds the research group.

"Emotion AI systems and affective computing are allowing everyday objects to detect, analyze, process and respond to people's emotional states and moods to provide better context and a more personalized experience," said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. "To remain relevant, technology vendors must integrate AI into every aspect of their devices, or face marginalization."

The current wave of emotion AI systems is being driven by the proliferation of virtual personal assistants (VPAs) and other AI-based technology for conversational systems...

While many Pennsylvanians found a new smartphone under the tree last month, Secretary of Banking and Securities Robin L. Wiessmann urges consumers to consider several strategies to protect their new smartphones from phony apps that can steal information, take over that new device, and wreak havoc on personal networks.

Wiessmann explains that these phony mobile apps are promoted on websites or through marketing emails, which appear to be legitimate offers from famous companies. However, phony apps are designed to fool users into sharing credit card, banking, or other personal information. Some phony apps also contain viruses, malware, or ransomware, which can take over the phone and steal personal information of people stored in email address books and contact lists.

According to research firm RiskIQ, criminals using phony smartphone apps focus their efforts on imitating the leading brands in e-commerce. These brands have thousands of blacklisted apps that contain...

MusiComms, an organization “dedicated to the future of music distribution,” has announced the results of its latest industry research. The survey, which was conducted in quarter four of 2017, polled 5,000 consumers across all demographics and regions across the U.S.

How much will consumers pay for music? Will they ever pay more? How will this type of information impact music business strategy? Those are the types of questions MusiComms posed to consumers in their latest survey. Here’s what they learned:

° Most people get their music for free today. Fifty-two percent of people indicated that they don’t pay anything currently for their music. Of that number, 29% said their primary source is free AM/FM radio. That number was followed by 15% who listen to free Internet-based music services, and 7% referred to Internet video sites.

° Forty percent of consumers polled will never pay more for music. When asked what would motivate consumers to pay more, a whopping 40%...

Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $419.7 billion in 2017, a 22.2%increase from 2016, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Undersupply helped drive 64% revenue growth in the memory market, which accounted for 31% of total semiconductor revenue in 2017.

"The largest memory supplier, Samsung Electronics, gained the most market share and took the No. 1 position from Intel — the first time Intel has been toppled since 1992," said Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner. "Memory accounted for more than two-thirds of all semiconductor revenue growth in 2017, and became the largest semiconductor category.”

The key driver behind the booming memory revenue was higher prices due to a supply shortage. NAND flash prices increased year-over-year for the first time ever, up 17%, while DRAM prices rose 44%. Gartner says equipment companies could not absorb these price...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the number of QR code coupons redeemed via mobile will reach 5.3 billion by 2022, up from an estimated 1.3 billion in 2017. The report finds that the use of QR codes to deliver coupons and discount offers will increase substantially, as in-built QR functionality on mobile devices drives usage, with Apple leading the way.

Recent changes by Apple, to include QR code reader functionality as part of the camera application on iPhone devices, has lead Juniper to revise upwards our mobile coupon forecasts. Juniper forecasts that over one billion mobile devices will access coupons through QR codes by 2022.

"Apple’s addition of QR code reading facilities directly addresses a major barrier for use in Western markets,” says research author Lauren Foye. “The lack of an in-built reader had been a hindrance, with consumers needing...

TMR (www.transparencymarketresearch.com) predicts that the global mHealth market will earn an estimated US$118.4 billion by the end of 2025 at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 22.1% during the forecast timeframe 2017-2025.

In 2017, the market had been worth a US$23.9 billion. By product, connected medical devices had secured a dominant share in 2016. By region, North America stood at a leading position while being worth a US$45.9 billion by the final forecast year.

The wide range of mHealth applications has been anticipated to bring in scores of lucrative business prospects in the world market, according to TMR. From chronic disease management to complex population health analysis, mHealth could be highly demanded across several applications in the modern times.

In a healthcare setting, mHealth could play a vital role as healthcare payers and providers...

Digital transformation (DX) in the worldwide banking industry is characterized by the ability to use technology to break out of the constraints forced by legacy systems and processes and enable a more efficient and responsive institution.

While all banks worldwide acknowledge the importance and complexity of transforming their businesses to compete in this new digital economy, nearly 40% have not yet executed on a sustainable digital transformation strategy, according to a new survey from International Data Corporation (www.idc.com). Key findings of this study include:

° All banks worldwide acknowledge the importance and complexity of transforming their businesses to compete in the new digital economy. However, nearly 40% are still at the ad hoc or opportunistic stages of maturity, meaning that they have not yet executed on a sustainable digital transformation strategy. Fewer than 10% can claim that they are in a...

The Spy thinks he understands a little about a lot of things, and quite a bit about a few things, but he does not understand...

Why are some people's reactions are so ridiculously extreme?

Leaving ordinary politics (if there is such a thing) aside for the moment, and as detailed here last month, the Spamhaus reaction to spam emanating from a handful of servers at the NewTek/Deerfield/Atjeu facility was to ban an entire range of 65536 IP addresses. Despite NewTek's and the Spy's efforts, nothing can persuade the Spamhaus boffins to be more reasonable and ameliorate this. The Spy has now dropped Spamhaus from his server's mail scanning RBLs. Given their policies are this arbitrary, they cannot be relied upon to accurately detect spammers. Remove them from your Exim preferences.

But immediately taking politics and society up again, he has reconsidered last month's comments on technologically-induced...

An Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) system locates, navigates and tracks objects inside any indoor environment by using magnetic fields, radio waves, acoustic signals collected by mobile devices.

The global indoor positioning and indoor navigation market is expected to grow with a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of about 55% during the forecast period of 2016-2023, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkes.com). Increasing adoption of IPIN solutions and services in healthcare, commercial buildings, hospitality, etc., is fueling growth in the global IPIN market, adds the research group. Also, increasing adoption of radio frequency identification is boosting the growth of the global IPIN market during the forecast period.

However, large processing time and delays is the factor restraining the growth of the global IPIN market during the forecast period,...

The global artificial intelligence market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 62% during the forecast period 2016-2023. and is projected to hit $36 billion by 2025, according to a new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

Due to hardware advantages, superior processing power, superior serial and parallel power and excellent memory power due to recent advancements in the computer power and several other benefits, adds the research group. North America has the largest market for artificial intelligence and occupied 38% of total market share in 2015 as all the elite market players are in U.S. Factors that attribute to the growth of North America include high-tech developments of artificial intelligence in various fields.

Demand in Europe is mainly due to scalability of developed advanced solutions. Asia Pacific is expected to...

The global smart fitness devices market is expected to reach $9.4 billion by 2025, according to a new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

The research group notes that the smart fitness devices market has witnessed a rising demand among the growing urban population in a bid to enhance their fitness goals. Advantages such as accessing fitness activities data in remote and real-time operations have resulted in an increased penetration of the market.

Additionally, there are tremendous opportunities for advancements in the smart fitness devices owing to the increasing usage of smartphones and enhanced internet accessibility, which, in turn, would fuel the growth of smart fitness market. The growing adoption of the smart fitness devices to keep track of sleep, steps, calories, heart rate, and other bodily stats is anticipated to revolutionize the market by 2025....

A study conducted online by Harris Poll, on behalf of Tenable (www.tenable.com) has found that many consumers fail to practice basic security cyber hygiene.

While nearly all Americans (94%) were aware of news stories about security breaches in the past 12 months, few have taken critical steps to protect their data or changed their online habits. The study, conducted among over 2,000 U.S. adults found 44% of Americans did not use a password to protect their personal information on their computer in the past 12 months, and 55% failed to use a PIN to protect their personal information on their mobile devices.

When it comes to the industry recommended practice of two-factor authentication, a staggering 75% of Americans revealed they had not implemented this feature to protect their personal information on their devices. Just 32% of Americans who have heard of any news stories about security breaches in the...

Canalys (www.canalys.com) forecasts that standalone smart VR headset shipments will pass 1.5 million in 2018, and grow with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 140% to reach 9.7 million units in 2021.

Oculus, HTC and Lenovo are launching new standalone headsets aimed at different market segments, which will drive rapid market growth. Standalone VR headsets are expected to help push the VR headset market to 7.6 million units in 2018, twice the shipments forecast for this year, according to Canalys. The research group says Oculus made a big move by unveiling the Oculus Go, its first consumer-ready standalone smart VR headset during Oculus Connect 4 on 11 October 2017.

“Oculus Go, while a great move by Facebook to mobilize VR, will fail to get consumer attention when launched,” said Canalys Research Analyst Vincent Thielke. “The extra cost of the headset and the fact that a smartphone-based solution, such...

The rate of adoption of smart speakers continues to defy expectations and there are clear signs that the market is starting to move from the early adopter phase to hitting the mass market, according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com). What’s more, the Chinese market for smart speakers will receive a kick-start in quarter fourth thanks to aggressive pricing and promotions around Chinese Singles' Day of devices from Alibaba, Xiaomi and JD.com as well as the much anticipated launch of Baidu's first Duer OS speaker, the research group adds.

Worldwide spending on digital transformation (DX) technologies (hardware, software, and services) is expected to be nearly $1.3 trillion in 2018, an increase of 16.8% over the $1.1 trillion spent in 2017, according to IDC (www.idc.com).

The research group forecasts DX spending to maintain a strong pace of growth over the 2016-2021 forecast period with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.9%. In 2021, DX spending will nearly double to more than $2.1 trillion.

The majority of DX spending in 2018 ($662 billion) will go toward technologies
that support new or expanded operating models as organizations seek to make their operations more effective and responsive by leveraging digitally-connected products/services, assets, people, and trading partners, according to IDC.

The second largest DX investment area in 2018 ($326 billion) will be technologies supporting omni-experience innovations that transform...

The worldwide IT security market maintained momentum in quarter three (Q3) of 2017, growing 9% to reach $8 billion, according to the latest Canalys (www.canalys.com) estimates.

“High-profile ransomware attacks and increasingly sophisticated phishing techniques have proved the need for businesses to reinforce their IT security to safeguard data assets and ensure continuity of operation,” said Claudio Stahnke, an analyst at the research group.

Content security was the fastest-growing segment, with investment up 13% year on year. Network security grew 8%, while security management increased 5%.
The top five security vendors accounted for 34% of total spend, with Cisco accounting for the most, at 9%.

Cisco grew 7% year on year, thanks to its strong channel partner focus and a broad product portfolio boosted by acquisitions. It was followed by Symantec, Check Point, IBM and McAfee, which all grew...

2020 will be a pivotal year in AI-related employment dynamics, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com), as artificial intelligence (AI) will become a positive job motivator.

The research group says the number of jobs affected by AI will vary by industry; through 2019, healthcare, the public sector and education will see continuously growing job demand while manufacturing will be hit the hardest. Starting in 2020, AI-related job creation will cross into positive territory, reaching two million net-new jobs in 2025.

"Many significant innovations in the past have been associated with a transition period of temporary job loss, followed by recovery, then business transformation and AI will likely follow this route," said Svetlana Sicular, research vice president at Gartner. AI will improve the productivity of many jobs, eliminating millions of middle- and low-level positions, but also creating millions more...

Worldwide spending on industry cloud in the finance industry (banking, insurance, and securities and investment services combined) is expected to reach $3.2 billion in 2017, which represents an increase of 26% over 2016, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Industry Cloud Tracker. IDC (www.idc.com) expects the amount to more than double in 2021, amassing total worldwide spending of $7.2 billion.

The manufacturing industry (both discrete and process combined) was a larger spender on industry cloud though, relative to its finance counterpart. This industry is expected to spend $4.2 billion in 2017 and achieve year-over-year growth of 23% in 2018. Similar to the finance industry, the manufacturing industry is also set to double its 2017 spending in 2021, reaching a total of $9.2 billion by then, notes IDC.

The worldwide IT security market maintained momentum in Q3 2017, growing 9% to reach US$8.0 billion, according to the latest Canalys (www.canalys.com) estimates.

“High-profile ransomware attacks and increasingly sophisticated phishing techniques have proved the need for businesses to reinforce their IT security to safeguard data assets and ensure continuity of operation,” said Claudio Stahnke, analyst at the research group.

Content security was the fastest-growing segment, with investment up 13% year on year. Network security grew 8%, while security management increased 5%.
The top five security vendors accounted for 34% of total spend, with Cisco accounting for the most, at 9%.

“Cisco grew 7% year on year, thanks to its strong channel partner focus and a broad product portfolio boosted by acquisitions,” said Stahnke. It was followed by Symantec, Check Point, IBM and McAfee, which all grew...

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) services, provided by the likes of Netflix and Amazon, will drive a surge in OTT [over-the-top] revenues to reach $120 billion in 2022, up from $64 billion in 2017.

The research also found that over a quarter of global households will subscribe to SVOD services by 2022. Juniper estimates that Netflix will spend over $6 billion during 2017-18, in contrast to the publicly funded BBC, which is investing a comparatively small sum of $1.4 billion. SVOD players including Netflix are seeking to out-spend traditional providers; attempting to deliver original content and reduce reliance on expensive back-catalogues.

“Success will hinge on whether these providers can continue to produce hits such as ‘Stranger Things’,” says research author Lauren Foye. “As consumers become more fluid in their...

A report by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) finds that revenues from smart audio devices like the Amazon Echo and Sonos One will grow from an estimated $2.5 billion in 2017 to over $10 billion by 2022, as more audio brands integrate voice assistants into their devices.

The research group sys that the smart speaker market is largely divided by sector and brand. Tech companies are building from a digital assistant perspective, while audio vendors see them as a way to make their products more relevant and feature rich. Only Apple is breaking this pattern, with the HomePod positioned as an intelligent audio device rather than a platform for Siri.

These different approaches affect several elements of product design, with a large impact on prices. The research shows how devices costing over $200 will take over 40% of sector revenue while being only 16% of shipments in 2022, as voice...

Network functions at the enterprise edge, such as routing, security, and WAN optimization, have historically been delivered via dedicated purpose-built physical network appliances deployed on the enterprise network edge.

Under the new paradigm of virtual CPE (vCPE), these network functions are delivered on virtual multitenant commodity infrastructure, now widely referred to in the industry as uCPE. Instead of several physical appliances at the network edge, virtual CPE aims to leverage several virtual network functions on a single (or multiple) hardware device.

A new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the worldwide virtual CPE infrastructure market – hardware and software – will exceed $3 billion by 2021. IDC (www.idc.com) forecasts the virtual CPE software market to grow from $145.7 million in 2016 to $2 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 68.3%. The virtual...

In the third quarter of 2017, worldwide server revenue increased 16% year-over-year, while shipments grew 5.1% from the second quarter of 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

"The third quarter of 2017 produced continued growth on a global level with varying regional results," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at the research group. "A build-out of infrastructure to support cloud and hybrid-cloud implementations was the main driver for growth in the server market for the period.”

x86 servers increased 5.3% in shipments for the year and 16.7 % in revenue in the third quarter of 2017. RISC/Itanium Unix servers declined globally, down 23.5% in shipments and 18.3 percent in vendor revenue compared with the same quarter last year. The “other” CPU category, which is primarily mainframes, showed a decline/increase of 54.5%.

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